Nam Dong Fun Football Festival 2018

The balls rolled again as children had another day to remember at Nam Dong Fun Football Festival. We would like to thank our sponsors: UEFA Foundation for Children and the Funding from Friendship club Sogn Og Fjordane for making this day possible.

Nam Dong Fun Football Festival was one of the activities to celebrate the International Peace Day (or One Peace Day) on the 21st of September. Every match began with the “Handshakes for peace” from both teams and life-skills activities were integrated with a wide variety of peace messages. One corner at the festival was also dedicated to exhibit students’ drawings about Peace, which drew a lot of attention from the crowd.

Students were not the only ones who enjoyed this festival. Teachers, parents, and especially volunteers from the Institute of Technical Education also enjoyed their time at the event.

The image of parents wearing blue uniforms as coaches and being referees was a very familiar sight for us. Recently, FFAV has been paying a lot of focus on training and building capacity for partners, especially for parents from local clubs. With the whole community joining hands and building the playground for children the future football school clubs is becoming visible.

Beside the parents, volunteers from Singapore in their green shirts were also important elements of the festival. They traveled a long way to attend the festical and participated in every activity with great energy event where the tiredness from their trip did not wear off. Apart from watching and cheering for the children outside the football pitches, they set up a stall to organize games and cultural information exchange activities for the children. The children were fascinated to meet the foreigners and tried hard to talk with them with their basic grasp of English.

The next day volunteers from ITE participated in pitch and garden upgrades, as well as holding English classes in Huong Huu primary school. This was one of ways forward of FFAV after 2018. This year was full of our great efforts in the changing strategies during the conclusion of the hand-over process. And with what we have gained so far, possibilities are available out there for the clubs to grab.